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CMLT 498G/ARTT 489G
SPRING 2001 FACULTY: MITCHELL LIFTON NARE RATNAPALA TEACHING ASSISTANT: ADAM McCONNELL |
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Textbooks and Other Requirements:
WEB & EMAIL: You are required to: 1. Have a valid email account (WAM or other on-campus account preferred but not required); and 2. Read your email regularly; 3. Since you are reading this on the web, you have obviously already logged on to the Digital Site. Now, navigate further to the Student Questionnaire, fill it out completely AND SUBMIT IT RIGHT AWAY. IT MUST BE SUBMITTED BY THE FIRST CLASS SESSION IN ORDER TO ALLOW THE CLASS ORGANIZATION TO PROCEED. 4. Read and understand this syllabus in its entirety.
Topics 1. Uses of web site & email reflector 3. Subject & Object of the course 5. Assgts. Procedures & Grading 5d. More about teams & grading
Uses of web site & email reflector In addition to providing the syllabus, schedule and other kinds of conventional class information which are to be found on this site, its sister site, “The Rosebud Project” http://www.inform.umd.edu/rosebud will make available clips from films which are under study, animated definitions of film terms, links to other relevant sites, and so on. We strongly recommend that you bookmark both sites. In conjunction with the sites, the email reflector will function as an integral part of the course. It will be used to convey general information concerning assignments and so on, but it will also serve as a forum where script problems may be discussed as they might be on a chat site. YOUR COLLEAGUES IN THE CLASS--NOT JUST ON YOUR TEAM--ARE A VALUABLE RESOURCE. THE REFLECTOR IS A QUICK AND EFFICIENT WAY TO HAVE ACCESS TO THEM. USE IT.
A few ground rules: 1. Confine your postings to class-related materials or questions. The reflector email stream is an extension of the class, not a place to let off steam or publish irrelevant stuff. Remember, everything you post on the reflector will be read by everyone in the class, including the instructor. 2. If you wish to respond individually to a message, rather than sending one to the entire class, do not, repeat, do not hit the reply button on your browser. If you do, you won't be replying individually, but you will be addressing the entire class and cluttering a lot of mailboxes needlessly. Send your reply to the individual's email address. 3. If you already have a wam account of other email address, you need not do anything further. You are automatically entered into the class reflector. IF YOU DO NOT HAVE EMAIL ACCESS, YOU ARE REQUIRED TO MAKE THE NECESSARY ARRANGEMENTS TO GET IT NOW!
Subject and Object of the course Digital narration is the product of the use of computer and digital technology as story-telling methodologies and devices. Most of you are familiar with the most common current use of digital narration: video games. It is the goal of the course to explore how the particular attributes of digital narration can be developed and put to the use of intellectually more sophisticated--and more challenging--material. Broadly put, then, the subject of the course is digital narrative and the strategies required to create in this emerging story-telling form; the object is to evolve these strategies, and begin to become proficient in them. Story telling has been a crucial activity of the human species since its members were capable of some form of communication amongst themselves. However brief and however sketchy some of these communications may have been (and we can only surmise), they were nevertheless imbued with the mimetic. The definition of the mimetic--or, to be more exact, of mimesis--is quite simple: it is, in its dictionary meaning, the representation of reality. Mimetic action takes many forms, whether simply kinetic (as in dance), or more elaborately representational (as in mime show or bardic runes), or pictorial (as in cave paintings) and so on. In spite of their diverse voices, however, at their heart all these cultural utterances have the notion of recreating or representing some aspect of the reality which surrounds the circumstances of their making. Mimetic actions are, in effect, double mirrors which both throw back images of the makers and the images of the culture in which the makers operate. Mimetic actions--the “let’s pretend” of childhood--are the basis of all narrative strategies, no matter what their formal articulation or how sophisticated (or not) the means for disseminating them. They form the basis for much of cultural representation, and certainly for story-telling. It matters little whether the story-teller or the story-audience carries out the actions, the pretending. What matters is that the story circumstance be firmly placed on a base of mimetic actions. From the simple role-playing of kids acting out cops and robbers, to the elaborately fabricated persona of pop groups, to the miming colloquialisms of body language; from the simple acting out as a snap-shot is taken or a home video made, to the spectacularly expensive mimetic simulations found in the various “Titanics”, to VR and other computer simulations, wherever you have this acting out, this pretending, this assumption of roles, there you have the mimetic, and there you have narrative. Be sure to bear this in mind throughout, but especially in your reading of Heim. Of course narrative has other components. This is particularly true of dramatic narrative, which will occupy much of our attention during the course. These generalities apply to both linear and non-linear narrative. The distinction between them will be the subject of our early class sessions. It’s important to note that though narrative has evolved prodigiously in its complexity and range over time, the most contemporary forms coexist quite comfortably with the earliest forms. If the earliest forms of mimesis were verbal, today we have songs, ditties, even advertising jingles, all kinds of verbal representations. Theater--at least in most countries--coexists with cinema. The visual and plastic arts, no matter what the medium used, still use form, shape, volume, color as their prime representational components. And so on... Which leads us to:
Digital Narration Digital narrative is nothing more than the use of all available digital tools, methods, procedures and possibilities in the “telling” of stories. For the moment, digital narrative is confined in its access to desktops or laptops or work stations. This will certainly change as the technologies do: flat screens, smaller, more powerful chips, increased memory capacity of playback systems such as DVD, increased bandwidth, different types of memory, including probably DNA memory, improved compression rates, new delivery systems and other things as yet not conceived but sure to be, all will be part of this evolution. Nevertheless, digital narrative exists now and available in the current technology: MUD’s, MOO’s, games, hypertext, all manner of experiments in cyberculture with non-linear narrative are already well developed. Critical work, that is, critical analysis using digital resources of all kinds of narrative forms is also appearing in significant sites. Nevertheless, these are very early days in the evolution of digital narrative, and, as Murray points out, a close parallel can be drawn between the present state of this evolution and that of the motion picture approximately one hundred years ago. What this means is that the process is still crude and very much in flux. This course is intended to be part of its development. There is little doubt that even as the advent of desktop systems caused a massive paradigm shift in computing and communication, creating previously unknown forms of representation (such as the Web), so the evolution of these systems will have--are already having--a profound impact upon virtually every area of contemporary life. At this time, we should be sensitive to the fact that this impact is most acutely felt in the so-called developed world, and is not yet as universal as the hype would have it. Just as the transitor radio and the walkman have now permeated virtually every culture on earth, however,so we can expect that it is only a matter of time before the access to visual digital narrative technologies will become as wide-spread. This course, then, is both an exploration and an application. Together, we will explore the potentials of digital resources put to the service of story telling. Together, we will develop such narratives. We will be experimental, imaginative, creative and unafraid to take chances and/or creative risks. Out purpose is not only to understand the ground already covered, but to open up new territories. It’s important to note that the emphasis of the course is NOT on computer modeling and/or computer graphics. We are concerned with developing STYLISTIC AND STRUCTURAL concepts which take advantage of the computer as a story-telling device. A rich concept is in every way preferable to a slick graphic presentation, and grading will reflect this fundamental fact about the course. IN ORDER TO AVOID THE TEMPTATION TO SPEND OUR TIME ON ELABORATE MODELING, AND SO AS TO AVOID CROSS-PLATFORM AND CROSS-APPLICATION MIGRAINES, YOU ARE RESTRICTED IN THE USE OF SOFTWARE TO THE FOLLOWING:
WE WORK IN A MACINTOSH EQUIPPED LAB. THEREFORE, FOR THE REASONS GIVEN ABOVE, ALL WORK WILL BE DONE WITH THE MACINTOSH VERSIONS OF THIS SOFTWARE. WORK DONE WITH OTHER APPLICATIONS AND/OR WITH OTHER PLATFORM VERSIONS OF THE SOFTWARE WILL NOT BE GRADED AND WILL BE DEEMED NOT TURNED IN. THERE WILL BE NO EXCEPTIONS TO THIS REQUIREMENT. ALL THE ABOVE SOFTWARE IS AVAILABLE IN THE LAB. IT IS ALSO AVAILABLE AT THE ELECTRONIC MEDIA CENTER IN THE ART/SOC BUILDING. SOME IS ALSO AVAILABLE IN WAM LABS.
Assignments, Procedures & Grading The class will be divided into several teams. Each team will script, develop and create one semester project as detailed below. A significant effort will be made to constitute those teams in such a way that various skills, such as computing, drawing, design, scripting, etc., will be represented in each one. THIS IS A MAJOR REASON WHY YOU SHOULD IMMEDIATELY FILL OUT THE STUDENT QUESTIONNAIRE! 5a. Semester Project During the course of the semester, you will design and, to some degree, execute, a sample of digital narration. For the subject matter of your narrative, you will draw upon Alan Lightman’s work, “Einstein’s Dream.” IT IS THE DESIGN OF THE WORK RATHER THAN ITS EXECUTION WHICH IS THE MOST IMPORTANT. This work will be carried out by each team as a whole: the project is to be a work of collective talents and energies. It is anticipated that initially not all the team members may agree on either the choice of material or the concept according to which it is to be organized. This is normal and to be expected. It will be up to each individual team member to make a convincing case for her/his choices to the others. At some point,though, a consensus should be reached so the work can progress. Lightman, your first reading assignment, is divided into short passages most of which illustrate, imaginatively and in human terms, some concept of time and how Einstein may have explored it in his “dreams”. In addition, there are other “awake” passages which, again in very human terms, situate Einstein at the time he was formulating his great discoveries. The first job of each team will be to choose which two of the “dream” segments, or which portions of a single segment, will be related to one another in your project. This will require first of all a careful reading of Lightman, then a thoughtful consideration of which segments, or which parts of an individual segment, work most interestingly in relation to one another. Next, your job will be to design the manner in which the relationship is established and activated. In other words, sketching out what will be the principal concept of your work, remembering that what you are trying to achieve is the creation of a version of the narrative which will expand upon that provided by the written text. ONLY AFTER THESE TWO VITAL STEPS ARE SUCCESSFULLY ACCOMPLISHED SHOULD YOU BEGIN TO DO ANY SERIOUS WORK IN DETAILED GRAPHIC RENDERING OF YOUR CONCEPT. IT SHOULD NOT BE ANTICIPATED THAT THIS WILL TAKE PLACE BEFORE THE SECOND HALF OF THE SEMESTER AT THE EARLIEST. THINK OF THE PRELIMINARY WORK AS SKETCHES, AS A WORK IN PROGRESS. Here is an example of how you might approach the construction of a concept. The segment in Lightman “19 April 1905” describes a world in which time has three dimensions, and a character is drawn and placed in three different situations, which, according to the premise of the segment, all occur simultaneously. But someone reading prose must proceed linearly, from one word to the next. Any simultaneity can only take place in the reader’s imagination, given the ability of the human mind to “hold” the recollection of one temporal dimension while continuing to read of another. A non-linear version of the same segment,however, would allow instantaneous “objective” shifting between each of the three temporal dimensions. This shifting might be triggered, either simply activated or controlled, by the segment itself, by one of the characters within it, by the reader, or by some combination of these. Either way, from the linear rendering a new type of narrative would have been created through the agency of the digital manipulation made possible by the computer. It’s worth repeating that the choosing of the segment or segments will require careful thought since, among other considerations, not all are equally susceptible to successful non-linear treatment. 5b. Evaluation & Grading You are expected to do the assigned reading by the dates indicated on the schedule. The scheduled quizzes (except for numbers 3 & 4) will be based on the reading assignments. Three and four will be quizzes which will test your ability to perform basic manipulations with Premiere (#3) and Director (#4). You are expected to make a serious and substantial contribution towards the creation of your team’s project. In order to help evaluate individual contributions each student will keep a detailed log outlining her/his contribution to the project. The logs should be begun as soon as possible and should cover the whole of the semester. Log the work you did, the time spent doing it, with whom you worked, where, and with what tools. The logs will be turned in and graded as indicated on the schedule. You will note in the schedule that a number of class sessions are devoted to studio work. This is a time when each team works collaboratively in the lab during class time. Both instructors will be available to assist, discuss, collaborate, and otherwise provide resources for your work. For your part, however, you are expected to use the time for class work, and for class work only. Use of studio time for personal emailing, catching up on other work, etc. will not be tolerated. Attendance will be taken at each class session and will be a factor in your final grade. For all your projects you may use any kind of material as sources for images. In other words, you may draw, model or otherwise generate original work, use photographic material (either created or existing), film clips, and so on. You must at all times, however, bear copyright issues in mind. The Multimedia Fair Use Guidelines must be consulted for guidance when using any material not in the public domain. Your projects are expected to take full advantage of the medium: immersion, agency, transformation, and the multiform plot,(as Murray explains those terms) are to be your structural components and are to be exploited as fully as possible. Since the main purpose of the course is to explore and/or exploit the possibilities of digital media which extend beyond those currently being used, you are not only strongly encouraged, but expected, to give your imaginations free vent. 5c. The Tools In the teaching theater where the class is scheduled to meet you will find access to Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premier, Macromedia Director and MS Word. Also, you will have access to a scanner, a digital camera and a Hi-8 video camera, the latter at the Electronic Media Center in the Art Sociology building. The EMC, also a Mac facility, has available the software which we will be using in the course. Be aware, however, that scheduling for the EMC is extremely tight, so make your plans accordingly. Plan on doing your work well in advance. Do not expect everything to work perfectly the first time. make it a habit to save and backup your work regularly. In addition to the demonstrations in class, throughout the semester there are scheduled workshops at the EMC which will raise your level of proficiency with the software programs. They will be announced in class. Take advantage of them. 5d. More about teams & grading As already outlined, this is essentially, but not exclusively, a studio class which will be structured around a number of design teams. Each project will receive a team grade, and each individual will receive a grade on her/his performance of the specific task assigned within each team. The individual grade earned on each team assignment will be an average of the project grade and the individual grade. Your final grade will be calculated on the following basis:
You have the option of being graded pass/fail. For those of you opting for pass/fail, you will be so graded on each of the above, and your final grade will represent a majority of the captions earned. Anyone opting for the pass/fail option must do so no later than Thurs., Sept. 9 . You must request this option in writing, either via email or by a simple note to the instructors. No requests for pass/fail grading will be honored after Sept.9 .
Revising Grades Lately a practice has developed whereby after an assignment or exam has been turned in and graded, students ask the instructor to revise the grade or otherwise modify it by an offer of a re-write, extra work, and so on, usually linked to a recitation of some ghastly tale. The reasons given for this are usually something like, "I need to get a C (or a B or an A) in this course otherwise..." You can fill in the blank with a dire peril of your choice. Another recent tactic is an appeal to the effect that "The grade isn't fair. I really worked hard on that paper, design, script, etc..." Be advised that we will entertain no such requests for grade modification:: the grade earned is the grade given, period. You are not being graded on the amount of effort you put in, but on the results of that effort. If you feel that an injustice has been done you or an error committed in the grading of that result, of course we will listen attentively to what you have to say and act according to the evidence. But on the question of ameliorating a grade for reasons such as described above you can expect us to be totally unbending. The time to think of the grade you need to earn in the class is before the assignment is turned in, then work accordingly.
Late Assignments Any assignment which is late will be docked one grade for each school day of tardiness. The only exceptions to this will be documented cases of illness or force majeure. Excuses such as a computer breaking down on the eve of the due date are not acceptable and will not be considered. Another common excuse which will not be given any consideration is the one which states that the due date came in a really rough week when two (or three, or four) other papers were due. YOU KNOW AT THE BEGINNING OF THE SEMESTER WHEN ASSIGNMENTS ARE DUE. DON'T WAIT UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE TO DO AN ASSIGNMENT!
Attendance & Tardiness This class meets once a week. If you miss a class, you miss a week’s worth of work. Attendance is therefore required, not optional. The same goes for getting to class on time. The lectures, demonstrations, etc. will begin sharply at 3:30. On quiz or exam days, these will also begin sharply at that hour.
Office Hours You are welcomed and encouraged to come see either of us at any time during the semester if you have any questions whatsoever about the course or related topics. We are easier to contact by email than by phone. Our office hours and locations are: Mitchell Lifton Tu, Thurs. & Th, 1:00-2:15 or by appointment MITH, 2M 100E McKeldin Phone: 5-8927 E. Mail: ml26@umail.umd.edu Naré Ratnapala Th, 11:30-12:30 or by appointment M2310 Art/Sociology Building Phone: 5-1455 E. Mail: nr17@umail.umd.edu
Disabled Students Any student with a documented disability is requested to contact the instructor at the earliest opportunity so that appropriate accommodations can be made.
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